


Odd Couple

by poeticlicense



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 08:40:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10940928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poeticlicense/pseuds/poeticlicense
Summary: Scorpius is having a crisis of identity and turns to his best (and only) friend for support. Albus is just trying to do his homework.





	Odd Couple

Scorpius entered the room like a hurricane, slammed the door behind him, and hurriedly sat at his desk. He immediately began to act busy and pointedly avoided looking in Albus’ direction. It wasn’t until he began to sharpen each of his pencils that Albus decided to look over the top of his book at the intruder. 

“I suspect there’s something wrong, but, as you know, I’m atrocious at reading people so you’re going to have to be upfront about it.”

“There’s nothing wrong,” Scorpius insisted. However, his eyes didn’t meet Albus’ and the aggressive tone he spoken in did nothing to help his case.

“I know you’re lying but I don’t care to pry so I’ll leave you to wallow,” Albus told the boy, once again devoting his full attention to the book in his hands. Scorpius continued to sharpen his pencils, which, unfortunately, he purchased in bulk. The loud buzzing of the electric sharpener continued for half a minute before Albus felt compelled to interrupt his dear companion. 

“Scorpius, do you need to sharpen all of your pencils at this very moment?” 

Scorpius continued his menial task for several more seconds before shoving the lot of pencils into an open drawer and slamming it shut. He still avoided Albus’ gaze, but Albus didn’t seem to mind. Scorpius, instead, moved to his bed and began playing with a small ball. Every few seconds Albus could hear the quick thud of the ball smacking against the ceiling and then falling back into Scorpius’ hand. 

“If I pry, will you stop being annoying?” Albus asked. He set his book down and faced Scorpius, who immediately turned his back on the boy. “I’m prying. Tell me what’s wrong?”

Albus was encroaching on begging territory, which felt ridiculous to him as he wasn’t entirely invested in uncovering this reason behind this week’s meltdown. He was invested in attaining some peace and quiet in his previously uninhabited dorm room. Therefore, Albus continued to stare at Scorpius until the boy answered, which took a surprisingly long amount of time.

“Do you think I’m strange?” Scorpius kept his back turned to Albus as he asked the question. His voice was quiet and a little stiff. 

“Yes. Is that all?” Scorpius sat up in surprise at Albus’ response. He stared incredulously at the other boy for a moment before he was even able to speak again?

“You think I’m strange?”

“Yes.” Albus spoke casually, as though Scorpius didn’t look as if his head were about to explode. 

“I’m not strange. You’re strange,” Scorpius told Albus indignantly. “You’re the weirdest person I know!”

“All right,” Albus said calmly. “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re also strange.” 

“I can’t believe people think I’m weird. I can’t believe you think I’m weird. Why would you tell me I’m weird?” Scorpius was up and pacing the room at this point. His hands moved wildly around the room as he vomited out his words. 

“I didn’t say weird. I said strange.”

“They’re synonymous.” Scorpius replied with an unamused tone.

“That’s true, but I don’t appreciate being paraphrased.”

“We’re getting off the subject!” Scorpius shouted as he tossed his hands in the air. 

“Oh, I thought we had bled the subject dry and were moving on to a new one,” Albus quipped.

“No, we haven’t,” Scorpius grumbled. “What about me exactly is so strange?”

“You’re too organized, too structured. If anyone interferes with your routine you freak out,” Albus explained matter-of-factly. 

“That’s not true.”

“Last week you yelled at Patrick Sawley until he cried because he spilled grape juice on your potions notes.” Albus could think of plenty more examples of the boy losing his cool in otherwise understandable situations but decided not to add fuel to the fire.

“Those notes were important! You would have done the same thing!”

“Scorpius, I’ve never yelled at anyone in my life.”

“That’s because you have no feelings,” Scorpius spit out, crossing his arms indignantly. 

“I have feelings,” Albus stated plainly. 

“When was the last time you felt a recognizable human emotion?”

“Well, I felt pretty annoyed today when you stormed into our room and started a marching band,” Albus told him, unable to mask the irritation in his voice. He rarely felt cross with Scorpius, even when the other boy was acting irrational, but he had brought up a sore subject for Albus. 

“You’re being dramatic,” Scorpius replied. 

“You cannot possibly believe me to be the dramatic one in this conversation,” Albus said, sounding completely bewildered. 

“What? I’m dramatic now?”

“Not just now. Always,” Albus bantered. He felt bad for insulting Scorpius, though, and added, “It’s part of your charm.”

“Charm?” Scorpius questioned, as if he’d never heard the word before.

“Yes. It’s also why people think you’re weird.”

“We’re back on the weird thing?” Scorpius asked.

“Isn’t that what you wanted to talk about?” Albus questioned, completely incredulous by this point.

“Not anymore. You offended me,” Scorpius said, crossing his arms and facing away from Albus.

“I didn’t mean to. I was being honest,” Albus told him quietly after a few moments. “What’s so bad about being weird, anyway?” 

“Nobody wants to hang out with a weirdo.”

“You want to hang out with me. I want to hang out with you,” Albus stated quite obviously. 

“Yes, but apparently that’s because we’re both incredibly strange,” Scorpius jested back at him. 

“You need to relax. No one cares if you’re a little different.”

“Some people care,” Scorpius mumbled after a second of hesitation. 

“Those people don’t matter. You’re fine the way you are,” Albus assured him. He smiled at the other boy fondly and let out a sigh. Scorpius ignored him and carried on

“You’ve called me annoying, anal, and dramatic in the course of five minutes and now you’re saying I’m fine the way I am?” Scorpius questioned. His tone was uneven and his arm movements had grown wild. 

“Yes,” Albus said reverently.

“You’re a total hypocrite,” Scorpius accused. 

“Sure, I might be but I like those things about you. Like I said, they add to your charm.”

“To my charm?” Scorpius asked, once again treating ‘charm’ as if it were a foreign word.

“Yes,” Albus stated. “You’re charming.”

Both boys were quiet for a while as they stared at each other. The mood in the room shifted quickly. The hostility that filled the room before melted into something sadder, something Albus felt less adept to repair. 

“I overheard Aidan Cunningham and his gang of cronies talking about me in the hall today,” Scorpius explained. “They were all talking about what a freak I am and laughing about it.” Scorpius paused for a moment. “I just never thought of myself that way.” 

“People call me a freak all the time,” Albus told him. He got up and sat next to Scorpius on his bed. “People say it to my face, even.”

“It never bothers you?” Scorpius asked.

“No.” 

“Why not? They’re obviously saying it to hurt your feelings.” Scorpius said. 

“I don’t care about what other people think of me,” Albus stated. “I just care about what I think of me and I think I’m pretty great.” 

“Do you care what I think about you?”

Albus started to answer, but paused. He realized he was stumped by the question. Normally he would say no. Of course it didn’t matter to him what someone else thought of him. This time, though, it did. He didn’t want Scorpius to think adversely of him. He didn’t know what to say.

“Well, do you?” Scorpius pressed after a brief period of silence.

“Yes.” The word slipped from Albus’ lips before he had time to decide on an answer. His eyes grew wide in surprise and he closed his lips harder. He was a brutally honest person but for the first time in his life he actually wanted to hide something, and from Scorpius, his best friend!

“I think you’re the coolest person I know,” Scorpius told him simply. Albus looked at him with pleasant surprise obviously painted on his face and Scorpius laughed.

“No one has ever described me as cool before.”

“You do and say whatever you want without ever worrying about what other people will think of you. I think that’s incredibly cool,” Scorpius told him. He placed on hand on the other boy’s shoulder and finally returned his smile. “I’m glad I have a friend like you, Al. We can be weird together.”

“Anytime,” Albus told him. He had to turn his head away slightly so Scorpius wouldn’t notice how flushed his face suddenly was.

**Author's Note:**

> I know that wizards don't use electronic pencil sharpeners but I don't care. I just don't. I'm not even sure when I wrote this, I found it on my laptop today and decided to post it. I don't care that electronics don't work at Hogwarts. I'm too lazy for this.


End file.
